New travel system could keep rail out of the loop
THE Government is being urged to abandon high-speed trains in favour of a new transport system that could potentially cut the journey time from Cardiff to London to just 20 minutes.
The Policy North think-tank says that rather than investing tens of billions in new rail lines that won’t be operational until the mid-2020s at the earliest, Britain should be putting its money behind the radical new hyperloop technology.
The think-tank argues that hyperloop could deliver more benefits than HS2 while costing substantially less, the Sunday Times reports.
“Hyperloop could make jobs in London accessible to people living hundreds of miles away, challenging the north-south divide and creating a more balanced spread of wealth across the country.
“Workers would no longer need to move to London to access the bestpaying opportunities – only to have the benefits of those positions wiped out by the soaring cost of living there. Similarly, businesses could locate to the north of England where there is plenty of space,” the think-tank’s president David Harrison said.
“The Government must stop trying to deliver our future transport infrastructure with technology that will already be outdated by the time HS2 is operational,” Mr Harrison added.
Hyperloop was proposed by US technology billionaire Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, in 2012. Mr Musk has since invited other companies and researchers to put forward their ideas for the project.
Hyperloop works by sending a pod through a reduced-pressure tube, driven by linear electric motors and air compressors and gliding above the track using magnetic levitation.
The pods could reach speeds up to 760mph, and at average cruising speed of 600 mph could cut the journey time from Cardiff to London to around 20 minutes.
While there are currently no plans for a Cardiff-London route, in June a hyperloop research company revealed that it was considering a Cardiff-Glasgow one.
US-based Hyperloop One said journey times on the 659-mile route would be just 89 minutes.
The route is one of three in the UK and nine altogether in Europe that the company said it was considering for the first hyperloop in Europe. The other routes were: Corsica-Sardinia, 280 miles EstoniaFinland, 56 miles Germany (full circle), 1,237 miles Poland, 415 miles Spain-Morocco, 391 miles The Netherlands, 266 miles London-Edinburgh, 414 miles Liverpool-Glasgow, 339 miles
Hyperloop One has been carrying out tests on a 500m test track in Nevada this summer, with speeds of 192mph reached in the second round of testing at the beginning of August.
By the end of this year, Hyperloop One will have a team of 500 employees dedicated to bringing the technology to life. Rob Lloyd, chief executive officer of Hyperloop One, said: “For Europe, Hyperloop One technology is complementary to existing highways, rails, ports and overall infrastructure. “Hyperloop One will offer Europe’s transport grid with an option that is more efficient, greener, on-demand and faster.
“We’ve seen a lot of interest here, and we look forward to creating a partnership to enhance the continent’s transport infrastructure.”
Mr Musk is reported to have won US government approval for a hyperloop network between New York and Washington, and for a test tunnel under Los Angeles.
Other companies, including at least two from the UK, have been carrying out tests as well.
University of Edinburgh-backed HypEd and rLoop, co-founded by Manchester-based Ilyas Vali, were both due to test this weekend.
Hyperloop supporters claim that working systems could be in place within a few years and could cost a fraction of the price of high-speed rail.
But sceptics argue that the projected costs are likely to be underestimates and that the risks of developing the technology will also be greater than anticipated.